As the death toll continues to rise, Britain's Got Talent judge Amanda Holden has revealed that she has been personally affected by the Nepal earthquake.

During a segment discussing the aid effort on This Morning, the 44-year-old star confirmed that her sister is stuck on Mount Everest following the natural disaster.

"I'm still quite numb, it's hard to take in what an awful situation it is in Nepal," she told viewers.

She went on to explain that her sibling Debbie had been climbing in Kathmandu when the violent tremors triggered an avalanche, killing 18 people on the mountain. Among the fatalities were five foreign nationals, including three US citizens – a Google engineer, a doctor and a filmmaker – as well as a Japanese man and an Australian woman.

However, Debbie had been struck with altitude sickness and was unable to continue the ascent to base camp.

"My sister is climbing Everest. Very luckily she was suffering from [altitude sickness]," she said. "My sister was suffering from altitude sickness so she didn't go up to base camp. That may have saved her life."

Holden confirmed that Debbie had managed to contact her family to confirm that she was alive and well but still frightened.

She added: "I think they rushed out when the earthquake came and rushed back in because they were affected by an avalanche partly at the camp they were in ... and I think they were going to make their way down this morning."

"There are people who are not getting food and shelter. I've had reports of villages where 70% of the houses have been destroyed," Udav Prashad Timalsina, the top official for the Gorkha district, told AP.

"This crisis leaves children particularly vulnerable – limited access to safe water and sanitation will put children at great risk from waterborne diseases, while some children may have become separated from their families," it said.